Also, so Minnesota and Wake don't have to potentially play for 3 straight seasons (in the event we adopt a home and home format) we could switch those 8 and 9 games (assuming they haven't been scheduled yet... I havent checked), so the matchups were Minnesota vs. Virginia and Indiana vs. Wake Forest. Those matchups were determined by only a very slim tie-breaker to begin with.

Not a big fan of having all home or all away by conference. Takes some of the fun out of "winning" it cause the home teams would be expected to have the advantage. Much prefer 6:6 and dont care which year I am at home.

If people are still interested in continuing the ACC/Big Ten challenge, new matchups are given below. I think we have finally worked the kinks out of this system, and have something good to build on, so thanks for your patience!

This is a home-and-home series over two seasons. For the next two seasons you’ll schedule the same opponent, just switching the home team.

To determine the match-ups, teams from each conference were ranked 1 through 12 based on total regular season conference wins over the past 2 seasons. Any ties were broken by using average RPI over the past 2 seasons. Pairings were then set to be #1 ACC vs. #1 Big Ten, #2 ACC vs. #2 Big Ten, etc.

The team with the highest number of conference wins over the past two seasons was considered the overall #1 seed, and the conference of that team (Illinois/Big Ten) got home games allocated to its odd-seeded teams for this season, and the other conference (ACC) got home games allocated to its even-seeded teams. Of course, that flips next season.

One guiding principle of the challenge is to avoid repeat matchups in too-short a time period. We have established that no two teams can have multiple home-and-homes within a six-season window. To adhere to this, team seedings may need to be shifted from time to time. The degree of seed shifting will be minimized as much as possible when determining which teams to shift.

For this challenge, #3ACC Duke and #4ACC Florida St. were seed-shifted to avoid a repeat of the home-and-home series between Duke and Michigan St. that was played over the past 2 seasons. It was decided to switch Duke and FSU, because it minimized the degree of seed-shifting… those two teams were already tied in the number of ACC conference wins, and Duke was #3 ACC by virtue of the RPI tie-breaker with FSU. All other matchups played out strictly by the numbers, with no repeat matchups from last time.

Without further ado, for those who are interested in continuing the challenge, here are match-ups to be scheduled for next season:

Boston College @ Illinois

Iowa @ Miami-FL

Florida St. @ Michigan St.

Indiana @ Duke

Georgia Tech @ Minnesota

Northwestern @ North Carolina

NC State @ Wisconsin

Michigan @ Wake Forest

Virginia @ Penn St.

Purdue @ Clemson

Maryland @ Notre Dame

Ohio St. @ Virginia Tech

The HOME TEAM is the RESPONSIBLE PARTY for extending the schedule invite. Games should be scheduled for GAME 6 if possible, but if that's already taken, any date will work.

coach_ms and I are sort of serving as co-commissioners for this challenge. For my own part, I will continue to be active in helping arrange matchups, etc. for as long as we can maintain greater than 50% participation. Both of us have signed off on the method of determining matchups, and on this season's match-ups.

The challenge pairings for Season 41 are listed below. Please schedule for Game 6 if possible. Home team is responsible for extending the challenge invite. Season 42 will have the same pairings but with the Season 41 road teams being at home.

Michigan St. @ Georgia Tech

Miami-FL @ Illinois

Iowa @ North Carolina

Florida St. @ Northwestern

Minnesota @ Boston College

NC State @ Michigan

Indiana @ Maryland

Duke @ Ohio St.

Wisconsin @ Wake Forest

Clemson @ Penn St.

Purdue @ Virginia

Virginia Tech @ Notre Dame

How the Pairings Were Determined

Teams within each conference were seeded 1 through 12, based on regular season conference wins over the past two seasons.

Any ties were broken by better average RPI over the last two seasons.

Big 10 #1 plays ACC #1, and so on, down to #12 vs. #12.

Seeds are switched if necessary to prevent any challenge rematches from the past 6 seasons (i.e. you are guaranteed to play 3 different teams in any 6-season window). The teams that are seed-switched to accomplish this are those of the affected teams that are closest to a different seed line (using the seeding criteria).

The overall No. 1 seed is the team from either conference with the most conference wins over the past two seasons (RPI tie-breaker used if needed). This team's conference will have its odd-seeded teams play at home and even-seeded teams play on the road in Season 1 of the two-season cycle. Keep the same pairings, but with home teams switched in Season 2.

For this season, ACC#3 Florida St. and ACC#4 UNC were switched to avoid a UNC/Northwestern rematch, and ACC#7 Duke and ACC#8 Maryland were switched to avoid an Indiana/Duke rematch.

Season 44 pairings will be the same as these, but alternating home/road teams. Four pairs of teams had to be switched from their true seed-line this time around, to avoid rematches: Miami/FSU, Purdue/Ohio St./Indiana/Michigan, and Maryland/Duke.

Season 47 pairings as are follows. The following teams had their seeds switched to avoid recent rematches: Purdue/Wisconsin (5/6) and Iowa/Indiana (7/8) in the Big 10; and BC/FSU (3/4), Maryland/Clemson (8/9), and a 3-team shuffle in the 10-12 slots between Va Tech/Wake Forest/UNC in the ACC. Let me know if any questions:

Season 49 pairings as are follows. The following teams had their seeds switched to avoid recent rematches: Ohio St./Michigan St.(1/2), Wisconsin/Northwestern(7/8), and Purdue/Notre Dame (10/11) in the Big 10; and Georgia Tech/Florida St. (5/6) in the ACC. Let me know if any questions:

Season 51 pairings as are follows. The following teams had their seeds switched to avoid recent rematches: Georgia Tech/Boston College/Duke (1/2/3), Purdue/Northwestern (6/7) and Michigan/Penn St./Notre Dame (10/11/12). Also, I recognize that the NC State/Wisconsin game is a Sim vs. Sim matchup and can't be scheduled for next season, but changing it would have affected several other matchups, so I left it as is. Let me know if any questions: